Roy Chapman Andrews Legacy Expedition 2026

RCA Legacy Expedition 2026: Following Andrews' Footsteps, a Century Later

"Following the footsteps of Roy Chapman Andrews a century later" — that's how the team themselves described the second chapter of the Roy Chapman Andrews Legacy Expedition, which carried his legacy forward in two fields: paleontology and biology. Running June 22 – July 9, 2026 (17 days, 16 nights), the expedition traced the same ground the original Central Asiatic Expedition (TAE) once worked — visiting its old fossil sites, its old campgrounds, and the stories it left behind.

A Site Andrews Himself Discovered
Among the research sites was Ergiliin Zoo — known in Andrews' own day as "Ardyn Obo" — a Middle-to-Late Eocene locality and one of Asia's key fossil sites, home to a diverse range of ancient mammals including carnivores, rodents, early hoofed animals, and turtles. It isn't a new discovery: Ergiliin Zoo was first identified in 1923 by Andrews' own Central Asiatic Expedition, the same year he signed a confidential 14-article agreement with the Mongolian government outlining expeditions through the Flaming Cliffs and Ergiliin Zoo itself — the very agreement that was cut short by the revolution of 1925.

Other sites, like Khongil Tsav, carry a more recent scientific legacy: joint Mongolian–Japanese expeditions working there have uncovered the crocodilian Shamosuchus, the armored dinosaur genus Tsagaantegia, and an early group of duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosauroids) — discoveries that, together with Andrews' own century-old finds, continue to make the Gobi one of the richest fossil-hunting grounds on Earth.

Leading the paleontology research was Mainbayar Buuvei, Head of the Department of Paleozoology at Mongolia's Institute of Paleontology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, who has contributed to registering 14 Mongolian fossil sites on the UNESCO nature reserve list and has led research into giant titanosaur footprints since 2016.

Studying the Same Wild Asses Andrews Once Watched
The biology team's work carried its own echo of history. On June 11, 1925, Roy Chapman Andrews documented thousands of Mongolian wild asses (Equus hemionus) at White Lake in the Gobi Desert, noting their reaction to the early motor vehicles his own expedition brought with it. A century later, the 2026 team returned to study the very same species, alongside small mammal communities, nocturnal animals like jerboas — using modern tools what Andrews' era never could. The research was led by wildlife ecologist Gantulga Gankhuyag from the Institute of Biology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences.

Looking Ahead
With 2025 already behind it and 2027 still to come, this chapter of the Roy Chapman Andrews Legacy Expedition keeps a century-old, unfinished journey very much alive.